7th Update: 1st Round Halfway Point

March 27, 2018

Hi Guys, it's been 3+ weeks since my last update. My dad is uncomfortable, but okay.

~3 weeks ago was his off week & the mid-point in his 1st round of chemotherapy. He feels good, full of energy, on his off weeks. The rest between treatments allows his body to recover from any side effects.

~2 weeks ago he did a short & intense 5 days of radiation Monday-Friday to attack the cancer causing him pain in his bones, specifically in his sacrum & rib under his scapula. The doctors left 2 spots on his spine alone & did not touch his esophagus. He will be rescanned in about 6 weeks to see if the radiation worked, if not we'll try it again because the bone lesions tumors are getting dangerously close to pinching off nerves permanently.

He also started wearing a Fentanyl patch because the pain was becoming too severe. Thankfully the patches cut his pain in half & make it bearable. Thank you Rohan.

~Last week, after his 2 off weeks, he restarted his 2nd half of the chemo and it was rough. After about 19 days in between his chemotherapy treatments, his esophagus was closing up again. It seems it is growing as fast as they're getting rid of it. Zero sum game so far. Hopefully as the chemicals build up it'll be different.

He was also so low on his blood cell count that they almost didn't do that week's chemo. The bone radiation caused his white blood cell count to be low & so he got an injection to improve his production. However, one of the side effects of the shot is more pain.

We got back the reports from his MSK IMPACT test & he had a few genetic mutations that are matches for different treatment approaches. With PDL-1 present he's able to do immunotherapy. He's more than halfway through his 1st cycle, so we figure to finish this cycle & maybe another full one before insisting on doing it differently with immunotherapy assuming he's not making significant progress.

~Today he came home from the 6th treatment cycle of his 1st round & he's feeling good. He slept most of yesterday & today while in the hospital. He was having a tough time with stomach yesterday, but thankfully the nausea medication kicked in & eased it up a bit. This week is one of the every other weeks without Oxaliplatin & so he won't have to worry about the peripheral neuropathy side effect that comes along with touching cold things. He's eating a bit better, but bread is still giving him a hard time. The doctor also added Vitamin K to his treatment for bone hardening, taken from a study I read. Thank you Volker.

~Next Monday, he will have his last active week of chemotherapy of his 1st round. Then he will have another off week where he will be scanned & evaluated to see if the treatments are working. If it's working then he will continue with another 8-week cycle round of chemotherapy.

At any one time, some of the cancer cells will be resting. Chemotherapy only attacks cells that are in the process of dividing. So resting cells will not be killed. Some of the cancer cells that were resting during his first treatment will be dividing by the time his second treatment comes around. So they will be killed off. Normal cells usually repair the damage from chemotherapy more effectively than cancer cells. So damage to cancer cells should progressively build up without causing permanent damage to normal cells.